Until the summer of 2023, Valiantsina Votchyk led an active lifestyle and worked as a fitness trainer. But then the girl fell seriously ill. “Turned into a vegetable,” she described her condition. Now the Belarusian is looking for ways to overcome the disease — but reality brings despair.
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Valiantsina used to be a fitness trainer. Photo: tina_otchik / Instagram
The illness began when Valiantsina lived in Bali. The first symptoms were weakness, headache, lower back discomfort, stuffy nose, and night sweats. Over the next six months, back pain and nose problems worsened.
Valiantsina searched for doctors in Indonesia who could help her, but to no avail. Over the next year, she underwent many examinations in Belarus and other countries, took many medications, and even visited psychics, but nothing helped. Many other symptoms were added to the previous ones, including severe pain throughout her body.
The girl suspected she had some parasitic infection or problems with her spine. But in mid-2025, she learned that it was probably not them.
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Valiantsina before her illness. Photo: tina_otchik / Instagram
Valiantsina flew to India to see local infectious disease specialists — after all, if they work with tropical infections all their lives, they would help her with her presumed parasitic infection. The visit yielded no results.
But afterwards, the Belarusian met a girl in a similar situation, who had analogous symptoms and whom doctors had not been able to help for three years by that time. She suggested Valiantsina watch the film “Under My Skin” about people suffering from chronic Lyme disease, and the Belarusian recognized herself in the symptoms.
Valiantsina took a test, and antibodies to the Lyme disease pathogen were found in her. The girl recalled that earlier, before moving to Bali, she loved spending time in nature. Perhaps she was bitten by a tick then, from which she contracted borrelia — the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
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Valiantsina with her mother. Photo: tina_otchik / Instagram
Now Valiantsina believes she has chronic Lyme disease and co-infections, meaning she also contracted other microbes from the same tick. After this diagnosis appeared, the Belarusian is looking for a doctor. She recorded a video with English subtitles, asking for advice on any medical professional in any country willing to work with chronic Lyme disease.
In modern medicine, the diagnosis of “chronic Lyme disease” is debated, as there is no substantial evidence that borrelia remain in the body after the acute form of the disease has been cured. At the same time, an antibody test can remain positive for some time after the patient has recovered, so it does not prove the presence of an active infection right now. The same applies to co-infections — if tests for them are positive, it does not always mean an active infection is present.
Doctors, however, acknowledge that symptoms can persist for years after Lyme disease. But most doctors believe it is more accurate to classify such a condition as a separate diagnosis — post-Lyme syndrome, rather than referring to it as chronic Lyme disease.
In the following months, Valiantsina tried to treat herself, but her condition only worsened. The girl linked this to the fact that due to the consequences of one of the co-infections, she continued to ingest things that supposedly should have eased her condition. She admits on Instagram that she went through various antibiotic regimens, plasmapheresis, took herbs, and was treated with bee therapy.
blood purification method
The girl still suffers from seizures and severe pain; she is prescribed tranquilizers to at least slightly improve her condition. She writes in her stories that in January 2026, she was admitted to the Republican Research and Practical Center for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where a republican medical council will be held for her case.
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Photo: tina_otchik / Instagram
But she does not expect to receive treatment specifically for Lyme disease as a result:
“The neurologists here listened to the suggestion to watch the documentary ‘Under Our Skin’ […] Of course, no one will go against the system. I don’t know what will happen at the council in a couple of days.”
The girl’s strength is already running out. A voice message from her was published on her Instagram:
“You know, I feel so bad today that, frankly, I’m already saying goodbye to life. I don’t know if there’s any meaning in this.”
«Nasha Niva» — the bastion of Belarus
